End-to-End Machine Vision Solutions For Defect Prevention Installed at Smart Factory
Eigen Innovations’ end-to-end machine vision solutions for defect prevention has been installed at The Smart Factory @ Montreal, Deloitte Canada’s first-of-its-kind innovation facility, which showcases an interconnected ecosystem of more than 20 cutting-edge solutions and technologies to transform manufacturing and warehousing through digital transformation.
Announced in January 2023,spanning over 9,000 square feet, The Smart Factory @ Montreal is designed to showcase the possibilities of automation to run production lines, efficiently store and move inventory, as well as track inbound and outbound shipments. Using cutting-edge industry 4.0 technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), sensors, robotics, internet of things (IoT), big data, cloud and edge applications, The Smart Factory @ Montreal demonstrates how digital supply networks are transforming supply chains away from siloed functions into an interconnected ecosystem that is both seamless and transparent.
The long-term demo is part of a broader relationship between Eigen and Deloitte Canada as they work to support Canadian and global manufacturers to introduce digital transformation solutions into their manufacturing operations.
“This is an exciting relationship for Eigen as Deloitte is Canada’s largest professional services firm and at the forefront of assisting manufacturers in integrating the latest technologies to optimize production and reduce waste,” said Jon Weiss, Chief Revenue Officer at Eigen Innovations. “By combining Deloitte’s consulting experience with Eigen’s machine vision expertise, and showcasing our solution, we can tangibly show Canadian manufacturers how we can get them on the path to defect prevention. This installation also comes as we roll out a new ‘power of one’ approach and OneView machine vision platform – driven by our desire to remove limitations and barriers that continue challenging manufacturers and integrators deploying machine vision systems.”
Replicating the Factory Experience
“The exciting thing about Eigen’s machine vision installation is that it’s a scaled-down version of what manufacturers would actually deploy in their factories,” says Alan Taliaferro, Deloitte partner and leader, The Smart Factory @ Montreal. “There are many software vendors and solution providers, but few have taken the extra step of building a physical demo that shows true production value. It’s an excellent means of showcasing how versatile and comprehensive Eigen’s end-to-end solutions are in terms of capturing and standardizing data and providing a software toolset to immediately put that data to work.”
One Design – Create one blueprint that can be copied across machines for deploying and connecting hardware that captures images and other critical data on every part produced. It’s about integrating machine vision solutions and consolidating data.
One Record – Not just merged images from cameras – complete visual digital records with process, sensor and machine data. Factory teams can add data from any source needed to monitor and assess quality. These records also simplify generating machine learning models.
One Platform – All the data from all machines in one place. Automated analytics at the machine level or across factories. The ability to deploy and manage one model across all machines making the same parts. Insights that support process optimization.
Visitors getting a demonstration of the solution will see the cameras, edge processor and lighting solution designed to capture critical quality data in production. They will view the digital part records generated and shared on the interactive HMI touchscreen that factory operators use to review parts and easily provide feedback to help train and optimize machine learning models. They will see what all that data collectively looks like in the centralized platform along with the solution management and analytics tools.
While machine vision is widely used in manufacturing to detect quality issues, Eigen designs vision solutions integrate with existing manufacturing infrastructure and production machines to generate comprehensive digital records of parts in production. The correlated quality metrics and process data in these records simplify training machine learning models and allow production and quality teams to deploy and manage models for inline inspection, automation and process control.
“It’s all about using machine vision to give manufacturing teams the ability to prevent issues rather than simply detect them,” says Weiss. “By bringing together all the data they need on every part they produce, production managers and quality engineers can start to see trends and access analysis and insights as to what happened during the process to cause a defect. Determining the root cause faster gives them the ability to prevent similar issues from occurring in the future.”
A New Approach to Machine Vision Solution Design
Eigen’s approach to machine vision reduces the high amount of customization and trial and error typically required for deploying camera sensors and other hardware. The design of the solution goes beyond image capture. It focuses on capturing all the data factory teams need to monitor and assess quality. The configuration on the first machine serves as the blueprint for rapid deployment on other machines making the same or similar parts.
“Eigen has given manufacturers the ability to standardize machine vision solutions, along with the data they capture and generate, for every part across machines, lines and factories,” says Taliaferro. “Most factory teams manually pull data from multiple sources to get the combined data that Eigen solutions can generate. And it’s an open platform meaning that if there are other sensors or data sources that you need to incorporate into those digital part records, Eigen can configure the solutions to integrate that data as well.”
For more information: www.eigen.io
